NO TO ELECTRICITY TARIFFS INCREMENT
On behalf of the people of Mpika Constituency, am compelled to express my strong opposition to the proposed tariff plan by ZESCO, and I urge the Energy Regulation Board to reject it outright. It is unconscionable for ZESCO to demand more money from our already struggling citizens when their businesses are closing due to ZESCO’s inefficiency and failure to cancel power exports.
The truth is, ZESCO has been grossly mismanaged and turned into a “family tree” by those in charge, who seem more focused on enriching themselves than providing reliable and affordable electricity to the people. The current load shedding is a clear indication of ZESCO’s failure to deliver on its mandate.
It’s absolute madness for ZESCO to apply for an electricity tariff increase when people are barely surviving under the current tariffs. The proposed increase will only lead to more suffering, business closures, and economic hardship for the majority of Zambians.
I demand that the UPND government through the Energy Regulation Board dismisses this application without wasting resources on public hearings, which would only serve as a mere formality. The Zambian people must reject this proposal with the contempt it deserves.
Furthermore, how can ZESCO demand a tariff increase during a time of severe load shedding, which has brought our economy to its knees? It’s heartless, unacceptable, and a clear indication that ZESCO is out of touch with the reality of the Zambian people, ZESCO should just cut on its lavish spending.
We will not stand for this. I call on all stakeholders, including civil society, business organizations, and individual citizens, to join me in rejecting this proposal and demanding better from ZESCO.
Issued by:
Hon Francis Robert Kapyanga, MP
Mpika Constituency
All what I can say is that we have received this tariff increment proposal with mixed feelings. We know that politicians represent people and they wouldn’t want the people they represent to suffer. But ZESCO also is a service provider to the same people and wouldn’t want the people to suffer because both their business and domestic activities depend on power. So the best approach is to put politics aside so that politicians and ZESCO don’t antagonize each other. ZESCO is one company that has been abused for a long time by all the successive governments, I.e.MMD, PF and now UPND. MMD and PF governments have both exported power during their tenure, so they cannot blame UPND now. But here we are now, we have to face the reality, we have been hit by one of the worst droughts in living memory. So as we maneuverer around this challenge trying to find a solution or solutions, it’s better to look at the reason for tariff increment proposal than the effects on the people. As already alluded to, ZESCO has been abused for a long time and it doesn’t have the resources it needs to run effectively. It’s actually running with a huge debt, hence if the reason for increasing tariffs is to cushion or supplement the power expenses for power imports, then the intention is good and is worth looking at. Shooting it down like a Chinese spy balloon before critically looking at it may be a very grave mistake. By October, the little water that we still have at Kariba will be exhausted and people will not have power. But if ZESCO is allowed to increase the tariffs so that it continues providing the services through power imports, then let it be. At least people are much better to struggle with high tariffs and continue running their businesses than staying without power and close their businesses. You can imagine having low tariffs but no power, I am sure you are better off having high tariffs with power. Importing is always a very good idea but the problem with Zambia has been the tariffs themselves, they are too low, probably the lowest in the region. That’s why we don’t find many players in electricity like we see in oil marketing. For example under MMD, a Turkish ship exported power to Zambia from Mozambique on the the Indian Ocean. They were shocked when they saw our tariffs, they were just too low and the ship nearly went back. According to the little information I hear that time, the ship was demanding 17cents/kWh and us were charging 5cents/kWh, a difference of 12 cents, very uneconomical to attract any potential investors in the energy sector. So these are some of the situations that ZESCO finds itself in, people want power and ZESCO can import that power but it has no adequate resources, what do we do? In my case, I would still settle on the increased tariffs so that power provision can continue. We just have to make them not high for the people but reasonable. Moreover I heard that those consuming less than 200 units/month will not be affected.